What Does the President of the NY Fed Do All Day?

On Monday, as New York Fed President William Dudley confronted questions about the central bank’s latest monetary policy decision, one brave soul decided to use his time on the mic to ask one of the world’s most powerful policymakers: What do you do all day?

Mr. Dudley’s answer: A lot.

“It’s hard to say” what happens in any given day or week of leading the New York Fed, Mr. Dudley told attendees at a gathering held by Fordham University.

One thing is relatively constant, and that’s travel. Mr. Dudley said he travels to Basel, Switzerland, for meetings of the Bank for International Settlements, five to six times a year. He noted that while the town of Basel is a nice place, it’s not a place for fun and frolic.

“My wife came with me to Basel and understood she never wanted to come again,” Mr. Dudley said. One of the official’s roles there is to lead a committee at the BIS on financial issues. He said his trips there offered a very important chance to talk, and sometimes even coordinate, with other central bankers.

Back in the U.S., Mr. Dudley said he travels regularly to Washington for gatherings of the monetary policy setting Federal Open Market Committee, which meets eight times a year, and for meetings of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Mr. Dudley said these trips are in a sense a sideline to what he referred to as his “day job.” He said he spends a considerable amount of time on community outreach and speaking with various business and community leaders in his district. Travel’s a factor there as well: the official is scheduled to tour local business in upstate New York later this week.

Meanwhile, “I spend a lot of time on monetary policy,” Mr. Dudley said, and “I spend a lot of time on supervisory and regulatory matters.”

“It’s a great job,” Mr. Dudley said. “I’ll do this as long as they’ll have me.”

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